Porcelain Fibula

Porcelain Fibula
Originally uploaded by la_v_i_k_a
Another piece of my work that recently went out the door. I'll confess, I said goodbye with a twinge!

Now in the hands of a maker of handspun yarns, I would love to see the knits that this will adorn.

http://www.etsy.com/transaction/64142017

Honey Bee Pendant

Honey Bee Pendant
Originally uploaded by la_v_i_k_a
Very pleased to say this has gone out the door, on a silk cord, in a nice box, this past week...to a good home! Among glazes, a "good yellow" is hard to find, let alone one that pays respect to honey & honeycombs!

One last look:
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/65294881

Who Owns Your President? Who Owns Your University? Who Owns YOU?

Globally, it is more than likely that organized crime is buying elections, police, and university administrations via the banks.*

Organized crime now has the capacity to do this because we began to deregulate banking with the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_crisis#Tax_Reform_Act_of_1986), followed by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm–Leach–Bliley_Act).

The result was to make banking insanely profitable for globally operating organized crime groups--groups which are in turn, highly liquid, making them very attractive to the banking system.

Here is proof that it is of global concern:
The US Declares War On The Yakuza (July 27, 2011)
http://www.japansubculture.com/2011/07/president-obama-declares-war-on-the-yakuza-go-get-them-barry/

And, more proof:
How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs (Saturday 2 April 2011)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs

Consider also: the independent professional military organizations, such as Blackwater (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xe_Services), with deep connections to national militaries around the world, that are now for hire.

If we do NOT re-regulate the banks, we will never get out of this mess.

We are in more danger than we realize of losing our democracies, and control of civil society.


* (http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Home/article/ny-13.htm)

Dear Cupcakes...

Berkeley Republican students yesterday sold cupcakes priced according to the buyers' ethnic identity and gender. "White cupcakes" very expensive; "others" very inexpensive.

It was meant to highlight what the Republican students see as inequalities in proposed admissions legislation that would allow the UC's to take a person's ethnicity and gender into account for purposes of admission--an important public issue that deserves intelligent debate.

Therefore, I'd like to know how much the students involved are paying for their education.   For men and women benefiting from one of the highest quality educations in the nation, and the world, the analogy they made was remarkably unsophisticated, brute, and empty of real content.

I don't think their parents are getting their money's worth.

Long Term Considerations in Ceramic: COE

I've seen more and more people putting crushed soda lime and other glass on ceramic. I've been hesitant to do so. My reasons follow.

Ceramic glazes are also "glass on ceramic." They are carefully calculated, so that they expand and contract at the same rate as the ceramic on which they are used. This is to make sure that they adhere to the clay surface over the life of the object, and don't come off. Glass can expand and contract with changes in the weather & the immediate environment (such as a warm body, pool, shower, jacuzzi, winter).

The COE (coefficient of expansion) of soda lime glass (bottle glass) is 9. The average COE of common commercial high fire clays is in the neighborhood of 7. Porcelain drops down around 4. Both bottle glass and ceramic will expand and contract over their lifetimes--but at very different rates when the COE's are disparate.

A somewhat poorly matched glaze will craze--the "crackle" effect. However, increases in mismatching between glaze and ceramic can actually result in the glaze coming off of the ceramic. This may not happen immediately; it can occur up to several years after firing, when the two materials have gone through numerous cycles of mismatched expansion and contraction. This knowledge makes me reluctant to risk using commercial glass as a glaze on ceramic pieces.

Dirty Mouth?

That famous tag line from Orbit Gum commercials.

Now, there's Orbit Mist, a hydrating gum.

Do they market it in Germany? Would they leave out an entire market?

Why am I asking?

Mist means manure (really, the four-letter manure).

Dirty mouth?

Square Red & Black Porcelain Button

Square Red & Black Porcelain Button
Originally uploaded by la_v_i_k_a
Square buttons...a rarity, and often a collector's item. That's something new, that I just learned, lately. I thought it was interesting and then thought you might be interested in learning something new about bright red glazes.

In the past, red was a dangerous color: cadmium is poisonous. Its glazes could also be finicky and disappointing, burning out at the slightest overheating or affected by copper glazes fuming nearby during the firing, both resulting in a bland unattractive gray. Your work was ruined.

Now, cadmium is encapsulated in zircon (a silicate & a word we get from the Middle East) before being added to glazes. Structurally trapped within zircon and used as a stain, in suspension, rather than as a soluble oxide, it cannot leach (and soak into your dinner salad, in other words!). The result is that you can eat off of bright red dishes, as never before.*

This button combines a metal saturate glaze, on the left (most likely some combination of copper & iron, along with cobalt--It shows a bit blue when thinly applied), with a bright cadmium red. An impossible combination, just a short time ago.

*Just be careful: if you bought that bright red decorated dish abroad, in an unregulated market, it may still be unsafe.